Black Panther
by Mikel Midnight
Summary: In the era after World War 2, Batman gathers together a group of old allies and a young hero known as Tim in order to rescue the choreographer Katherine Dunham from the wiles of the Catwoman.


The year is 1948, and in a secret basement office owned by the Wayne family, a squadron assembles. Seated amongst them for the first time in the young scientist known as Tim, who has accompanied Superman in many of his cases; as a reward for which, the man of steel organised an introduction to those who chose to protect Gotham City when it is flooded with darkness. Batman slips in the door and belatedly plays catch up with the ongoing conversation.

Tim blinks in surprise, stopping short at the caped crusader's entrance. "Ah...what? Oh, gosh...I haven't been following, sorry, Mister Wildcat."

Wildcat blinks. "A kid not following the games? Kind of.. odd, ain't it?"

Batman folds his arms beneath his cloak. "Perhaps the boy has more serious pursuits to occupy himself with," he intones in a hollow voice.

Flying Fox crosses his arms, finding a chair to sprawl into. The pilot gives Wildcat an amused look, brow furrowing. "Ain't it kinda odd to dress up in tights, Wildcat?" Then he glances at Batman, and looks back to Wildcat. "That too."

"More serious? Than the Gotham Knights? If something is more serious that my team's playoff chances, I want it found and shot right now!" Wildcat smiles. "Odd to dress in tights? They've been doing it since the middle ages, Fox."

Green Lantern smirks. "Hmm... Middle ages. Knights. We seem to keep coming back to that."

"So, drinks all around?" Batwoman gets up. "Coke for you, I hope, Robin. The rest would be.. coffee? I know Batman will have his black."

Glancing up at the ceiling vent briefly, then returning his attention to Wildcat, Robin shakes his head. "Yeah, and they got themselves some common sense 'roundabout the Renaissance, 'Cat. Face it, it's a losing battle." He leans forward, elbows on his knees, and looks over at Batman as the emergency signal rings.

Dr. Mid-Nite tilts his head, his attention piqued. "Batman? I think you have seniority. Or shall I get the phone?"

"Nonsense Doc, but I will answer it. And only in Gotham." Batman activates the video monitor. "Batman here."

Flying Fox grumbles to himself that Batman acts as if he was waiting for a butler to answer the phone.

The emergency signal is activated, and the familiar face of Gotham's Police Commissioner Gordon appears on the viewscreen, with a slightly fuzzy picture. He says, "Is this on? I can never work this dadgummed thing."

Wildcat tries whispers to Dr. Mid-Nite. "It's Catwoman, Batman- come home, little bat-love child is getting restless." Robin is curiously silent, not even making a crack about seniors in Gotham.

Batman says, "You're coming through just fine Commissioner, what's the problem?"

From the viewscreen Commissioner Gordon says, "Oh, thank god it's you Batman. There's a problem with Catwoman."

Wildcat grins. "Am I psychic or what!" Dr. Mid-Nite returns the grin wryly despite himself, withholding any comment about his teammate's equally tumultuous relationship with the feline-garbed Huntress.

Batman narrows his eyes. "Go on."

Commissioner Gordon says, "Have any of you heard of Katherine Dunham?"

Flying Fox says "Katherine Dunham? I don't know her."

Tim frowns. "Isn't she that dancer?"

Batman puts a hand on Tim's shoulder and inclines his head slightly. No words are needed to say 'Good work' sometimes. Tim straightens slightly as a result. It's not too hard to see he appreciates the unspoken encouragement.

"Yes, that's correct. For the past several years she has been a sort of unofficial American representative touring Africa, gathering anthropological data ... she is also a Negro civil rights leader," Commissioner Gordon says. "At any rate, she has also been gathering information on a new dance piece. Her last trip was to a small African country called Wakanda, where she was loaned for her American tour, a legendary black panther statue. Guess who has expressed an interest?"

Batwoman lifts an eyebrow. "Catwoman, of course," she says dryly.

Commissioner Gordon nods, "Her latest dance piece, 'Black Panther', is starting it's tour in New York tonight."

Batman rubs his chin. "And that might just be the place for Catwoman to try and steal it."

Commissioner Gordon says, "Exactly."

Batwoman just listens quietly, a thoughtful look on her face. She eyes Batman dubiously, shaking her head very slightly.

Green Lantern narrows his eyes. "Not on our watch. Well, that is if Batman doesn't mind a little assistance in stopping her."

Robin nods toward Batman, then up at the viewscreen again. "Didja get us tickets, Commish?"

Commissioner Gordon says, "Of course. A box has been held for you, at R.C.M.H."

Tim jumps up and down excitedly. "Woo-shoo, a dance show!"

* * *

Nearly everything about Radio City Music Hall is tremendous. It seats 6,200 patrons, the staff of 600 employees is paid some $35,000 weekly. The 300 ton steel truss that supports the immense golden proscenium arch, sixty feet high, is the heaviest yet used in theatre construction. The orchestra is the world's largest theatre orchestra, and the screen, seventy by forty is the world's largest. The stage, which cost more than $400,000 to build, has seventy-foot sections that can be raised forty feet from the subbasement to a position fourteen feet above the normal stage level. The Gothamites seat themselves in the audience, save for Dr. Mid-Nite, who chose to lurk backstage .

Slowly the curtain opens. Strange, rhythmic music starts, pounded on drums. On the center of the stage is a small pedestal, on which is a seated statue of a small black cat, eyes glittering with oddly colored jewels. Batman rubs his chin. "Fascinating. I'm sure she'll be interested in stealing this."

A man and a woman slither onstage, dressed from head to toe in black, their bodies held low to the ground ... for a moment it almost looks like a pair of panthers are moving, until you blink. Wildcat narrows his eyes. "How can Gordon expect us to be on guard if most of the folks are in cat suits?"

The dancers stop, frozen in place, and the music likewise stops, and then jumpstarts again, and the pair leap off to the wings from a standing position, which looked almost impossible. A third man runs onstage, also dressed in a catsuit. He leaps with great agility, grabbing the cat statue, whirling around, and running backstage.

Robin whispers, "Bingo..."

The music continues, but the stage is quiet. Slowly, murmurs of confusion start to be heard from the audience. Batman leans into his communicator. "Talk to me, Doc." whispers.

*BZKZT* Dr. Mid-Nite radios "The dancers are being held hostage by Catwoman and a gang and a bunch of _big_ black cats!"

Green Lantern emits a glowing green catapult, and winds its head back, ready to launch. He launches his allies onto the stage, drawing points and gasps from the audience. As they make it back, they see the dancers huddled in a corner of the room, armed men pointing guns at them to keep them quiet. Catwoman is seated on a desk, speaking into a phone. A handful of large black panthers are stalking back and forth across the room, they spy the squadron first and growl deeply.

Catwoman hisses, "Batman! And I see you brought your friends with you too."

"All right Catwoman," Batman says. "What is it you want? I guarantee I have enough firepower to take you in this time. so how about surrendering."

Catwoman just laughs, "I think for firepower I still have the slight edge, lover." Most of them swivel around, aim guns at his allies, and the panthers go into a crouch. "You know very well what I want, I want the statue. Shall we call it a draw and my friends and I will just walk away free?"

The Batman narrows. "You're delusional Catwoman, but that's okay, I've brought my medicine..." He slips his hand behind his back and carefully unhooks the batarang. "You've already lost, you just don't know it yet."

Catwoman slips her hand behind her back and carefully unhooks the CATarang. She purrs, "We'll just have to see, won't we?"

Batman runs full out and jumps straight towards her, while his other allies jump towards the waiting catmen. He aims his batarang straight at Catwoman's hand, aiming for her catarang. Catwoman recoils and is pulled off-balance for a bit but lands on her feet, whipping out her CAT-o-nine tail's and catching Batman's ankle, yanking him so he crashes to the ground. Batman narrows his eyes and hits hard. "Ugh!"

Green Lantern emits a Tyrannosaurus Rex which roars with all its might and rushes the assembled panthers. The panthers scatter, then all regroup and leap atop the glowing green dinosaur, sinking their teeth and nails in. "Arrggg," the emerald gladiator winces in pain and falls to his knees. "How … that shouldn't happen … "

"Why else do you think that statue is such a find?" Catwoman smiles. "Those little eyes generate something called Q-energy … obviously proof against a Green Lantern, and probably against someone like the Flash, or even Superman." She hisses and turns to her men, "Stop acting like fools, I've prepared you for this," and jumps at Batman, claws bared.

One of the gunmen nods, and draws a small mirror from his belt. "I've been studing CAToptrics, blondie," and reflects a beam of light straight into Green Lantern's eyes, blinding him. Two of the gunmen are knocked out by Dr. Mid-Nite and Batwoman. The panthers, looking around befuddledly at the vanished T Rex, lunge for the Flying Fox, converging on him. Batman smiles and deftly spins to the left, prepared for Catwoman's attacks he swings his arms trying to block her aiming for a carefully placed judo chop to the body. "Course you have."

Tim, who had been trying to avoid the melee, reaches into his bag of tricks. He activates a high frequency tuning fork, trying to stun the area with a sonic attack at a frequency above the human ear's range, but well within a cat's hearing.

Catwoman groans in pain, knocked to the side. She rolls, and lands on her feet, in the same movement drawing a weapons, "Face the CATwhisker gun, lover," and fires, sending dozens of sharp needles straight at Batman.

Green Lantern thinks fast and uses his ring to generate a trampoline under the panthers' feet. "Someone tell me if this is doing any good. I can barely see!" After the panthers are catapulted into the air, one of them lands on one of the gunmen, the pair of them conked out from the impact.

Batman narrows his eyes and Jumps to the left reaching into his belt. He deftly moves past the darts and does a series of tumbling moves pulling out small little smoke bombs. "As I said: delusional." He tosses the bombs straight at Catwoman.

Catwoman jumps up on the table, "That old thing? You call me predictable, lover?" She throws down some small CATaclysm grenades, exploding the smoke bombs prematurely, as she disappears into the mist. She emerges near Green Lantern, who is sending her pet into paroxysms, "I simply cannot allow cruelty to animals," and she draws out her CAT compact, filled with knockout powder which throws GL into a CATaleptic sleep, freezes him into position.

Robin notes in the melee, the cat statue is being ignored. He makes a grab for it and lands into a painless somersault; once he's on the ground again he looks up quickly to see how his partners are doing. One of the gunman starts firing wildly at Batwoman and Robin. Batwoman grunts as she hits the wall. With a flick of her wrist, she unhooks her batrope and slides down the curtains toward the floor. Bullets tear through her swirling cloak as she lands in a heap on the floor.

Holding the cat statue close to his chest, Robin scrambles for the curtains and disappears behind them. The bullets follow him in; there's some poking at the outside from the inside, and suddenly the red drapes of heavy fabric are still.

Catwoman appears near the hostages, grabbing one of the women and pulling her into a chokehold. She is holding her CATarang, which has claws in the center, against the woman's terrified face. "Ok, friends, this is it, we walk out of here -with- the statue that your little buddy has, or this lovely lass ends up looking like our mutual friend Harvey Kent."

The gunmen who are still awake ... and the big cats ... form into a circle facing outwards, ready to make their move.

Batman leans over Batwoman and stands firmly. "You never know kids today, Catwoman, he could be long gone. Looks like you'll just have to cut your losses. You won't make it five feet. Now be a good Kitty and let the hostage go."

One of the big cats growls at Wildcat, as they slowly back away. Catwoman drags the dancer with her, CATarang poised at her face, "I'll mar her long before any of you make your move."

Batman says "Do you think Gordon's stupid? There are at least 14 policemen outside waiting to take you down."

Catwoman smiles, "We can take care of them. Now you will let us go, and this little lady will survive the night."

Batman says, "I think we're at an impasse. You have something we want, and I have something you want. Hurt that girl and you'll never get the panther."

Among the hostages, a tall woman, dressed in blue, suddenly shouts: "Yonvalou!" The hostage reacts instinctively, her body folding up, dropping through Catwoman's arms, leaving the criminal standing there, stunned.

Batman throws a gasbomb straight at Catwoman. "Looks like you can tell the dancer from the dance, Pretty Miss Kitty!" Catwoman shrieks and falls back, and the dancer runs back through into the rest of the troupe. A dark cloud from Dr. Mid-Nite billows out and envelops the hostage, and quickly he drags her back to safety.

Tim, who had been trying to avoid the melee, reaches into his bag of tricks. He activates a high frequency tuning fork, trying to stun the area with a sonic attack at a frequency above the human ear's range, but well within a cat's hearing. The felines appear subdued and start to whimper and lay down onto the floor, covering their ears.

Robin stashes the statue somewhere behind the curtains and steps out as soon as the action's started again. Trusting Batman and the others to mop up the evildoers, he immediately makes for Batwoman, checking on his fallen comrade. Batwoman suddenly rises to her feet, and places her left hand on Robin's shoulder as the boy approaches, no one but Robin realizing that she is literally leaning on him.

The dancers come out from their huddle, looking notably relieved. The woman dressed in blue walks over to the other girls, checking to see if the girl he rescued is alright. Batman nods and steps to the side. He looks at Batwoman shaking but doesn't say anything.

The girl hostage gets up and hugs the woman dressed in blue, who smiles. "Thank you," the woman says, "I'm Katherine Dunham, and I can't tell you how grateful we all are." She looks around at the assembled team, "I was hoping that the Negro gentleman, Amazing Man, would accompany you. Pity. Perhaps some other time."

"No problem missy," Wildcat says. "All in the interests of truth, justice, and dancers in skintight cat-suits!"

Dr. Mid-Nite turns his head and smiles. "Well give him the message you missed him."

Flying Fox says, "I'm sure he's here in spirit, Miss."

Katherine Dunham beams, "And please, meet the brave girl without whom you may never have captured those criminals." The girl smiles shyly.

Batwoman leans in to look at the girl. "That was some quick thinking little lady, well done."

Robin runs a hand through his hair, doing his best to look nonchalant, and to _not_ look like he's holding Batwoman up. His attention goes to Miss Dunham, admiring her. "Hey, we were happy to come," he says, not sure how to phrase it. He flashes the girl a thumb's up and a winning smile.

The girl extends a hand, "I just recently joined Miss Dunham's company. My name's Eartha Kitt."

Batman looks over at the body of Catwoman and shakes his head sadly. "We better take her in. It's a shame: with her skills she'd be a great crimefighter. Well, no cat and mouse this time my dear. No cat and mouse."

* * *

NOTES:

'Black Panther' was the name of one of Katherine Dunham's dance pieces for which there is no surviving documentation (hence the Wakanda shout-out). Eartha Kitt toured with the company in 1948.


End file.
